Easily Improve Your Fitness Level Using a Pedometer and These Walking Tips

Walking for Health

In our current fast paced world, we still can’t find enough time to do that one thing that we need: mild to moderate exercise repeated often. For the majority of Americans we do not need military-like fitness goals, we just need to do something actively and do it often.

Examples of lifestyle changes are common, well known and yet still underutilized, such as park the car in the last row at the mall instead of the closest row, stop the elevator one floor early and walk the stairs to your floor and walk yourself (or your dog) for that 15-30 minutes every night after dinner.

For many of us, we have grown accustomed to measuring, assessing and defining our lives and for this crowd using a pedometer is perfect. A pedometer is a device that senses your movements to tally up the number of steps you take. It can be worn, clipped, tucked or carried. Pedometers can be simple (clip it on your belt and start walking) or advanced (determine your stride length, weight, pulsating rhythm as you walk, calories burned and can be downloaded onto your computer). Choose a pedometer that has a display you can easily read in different lights, can be worn comfortably and has the features you want.

Prices range from $10 to over $100. If you are new to the walking idea and the keeping track of your “motion minutes”, start simple and move up when needed. Once you are ready to get started, try wearing it around your normal day for about 2-4 days just to see how many steps you take in a typical day. You can now begin to add steps by scheduling that 10, 20,30 minute walk and add them onto your total. If you want to measure distance instead of steps, find that local track or measured distance by car, walk the ¼ mile and see how many steps or strides it took you, multiply by 4 and there you have your mile number. Remember this is an estimate, but after all, we are in this to be in motion not measure in exact feet or yards!

According to the staff at the Mayo Clinic, you should

• Set long-term step goals. Think about your overall fitness and activity goals. Your short-term goals are the building blocks to these long-term goals. A long-term goal may be walking 10,000 steps a day, or about five miles (eight kilometers), several times a week as part of your new daily routine. You may also want to set a goal of walking faster as your fitness level improves. Keep in mind that the Department of Health and Human Services recommends that, in general, healthy adults get at least 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes a week of vigorous aerobic activity.
• Track your progress. To see how you're doing, monitor your progress over time. Your pedometer may or may not have a memory function to track your steps on a weekly or monthly basis. You can choose to use that feature or record your steps in a log of your own making. Or upload the information digitally to your computer or mobile device. Tracking your progress can help you see whether you're meeting your goals and when it may be time to set fresh goals.
• Check with your physician before beginning, especially if you have been sedentary for a while, have any orthopedic problems or have any medical issues that are being monitored.

To read more about different pedometers, shop Sports Health pedometers online >>

How Stability and Balance Training Improves Athletic Performance

Proprioception Separates Great Athletes from "Pretty Good" Athletes

Proprioception is the body’s ability to transmit a sense of position, analyze that information and react (consciously or unconsciously) to the stimulation with the proper movement (Houglum 2001). Put simply, it is the ability to know where a body part is without having to look.

Proprioception allows you to scratch your head without looking in the mirror or walk up a flight of stairs without having to peer at each stair. (Tarrant, 2003) Proprioception might be one of the major factors that separate the men from the boys - or more accurately the great from the pretty good athlete.

 

One Thing All Great Athletes Have in Common - And How Injury Can Quickly Decrease Performance

Think about it: look at the body control, the awareness of where they are and others around them, and the sport specific moves that the great athletes of our time are known for. The ability to turn and see the basket; dive, catch, and come up throwing; the quarterbacks that not only have amazing "field vision" but also the near instantaneous body control to avoid the tackler.

These proprioceptive abilities may be interrupted when there is an injury. Taken as a whole, proprioception includes balance, coordination and agility because the body’s proprioceptors control all these factors. Proprioceptors consist of both sensory and motor nerves that send and receive impulses to and from the central nervous system from stimuli within the skin, muscles, joints and tendons (Houglum 2001). These impulses transmit vital information, such as the amount of tension in a given muscle and the relative position of a body part during a given movement. An example of proprioceptive exercises is the use of a balance board after an ankle sprain. The unpredictable movements of the balance board teach your body to react without having to think about these movements.

For Optimal Performance, Proprioception Cannot be Overlooked or Overdone

More equipment designed to improve proprioception is on the market today than ever before. There are boards on round blocks, air “cushions”, boards on air cushions and foam rubber of varying thickness and shapes. There are balance boards, wobble discs, stability trainers, BOSU® Balance Trainers, and Thera-Band® Stability Trainers just to name a few. The improvement or restoration of proprioception should be a normal part of every athlete’s conditioning and/or reconditioning protocol. For further clarification, go to How to Improve Proprioception by Michelle L. Tarrant, Med. For an excellent selection of proprioceptive supplies go to Sports Health at www.sportshealth.com.

Phil Hossler, ATC has been an athletic trainer on the scholastic, collegiate and Olympic levels. He has authored 4 books and numerous articles and served as an officer in state and regional athletic training associations for 20 years. He is a member of four halls of fame including the National Athletic Trainers’ Association’s.

4 Steps to Prevent Heat Illness

Heat Acclimatization Guidelines Created to Decrease Heat Illness

In 2009, the National Athletic Trainers' Association released Preseason Heat-Acclimatization Guidelines for Secondary School Athletics to decrease the occurrence of heat illness in high school athletes participating in summer practices. Unfortunately, it wasn't until after the nation experienced "the worst week in the last 35 years in terms of athlete deaths" that states began mandating the adoption of these guidelines. In summer of 2011, three heat-related deaths were reported on high school football fields, four Arkansas football players were hospitalized for dehydration, and an endurance runner died of apparent heatstroke during a race called the Warrior Dash.

Heat Related Fatalities on the Rise

According to a study by Andrew J. Grundstein, an associate professor in the department of geography at the University of Georgia, the annual death rate was around one per year from 1980 to 1994 but rose to a yearly average of 2.8 in the next 15 years.

The Reason for the Rise of Heat Illness

In the past, simply scheduling summer practices for early morning and/or evening would be enough to avoid the highest temperatures of summer and reduce the risk of heat illness. However, according to Grundstein, morning temperatures are higher than they were decades ago.

Additionally, high school athletes are bigger than they were decades ago. According to Douglas J. Casa, chief operating officer of the Korey Stringer Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing sudden death in sports, "You have 300-pound high school guys walking out to practice and you have no medical staff and they're going six hours in 100-degree temperatures."

4 Steps to Help Prevent Heat Illness

1. Follow the 14-day heat-acclimatization period recommended by the NATA.
2. Use a Wet Bulb Globe Temperature Meter (WBGT) — not the heat index — when assessing whether practice conditions are safe. The WBGT index is the most widely used and accepted way to assess heat stress in the United States, but getting coaches to move away from their reliance on the heat index is a challenge.
3. Have an ice water bath available if players show signs of heat stroke. Learn more >>
4. Have an athletic trainer present during all practices and games.

States that Mandate Student Safety During High Heat

• May 2011 - New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association becomes first state organization to adopt heat-acclimatization guidelines.
• October 2011 - the University Interscholastic League in Texas bans two-a-days for the first four days of training camp and on consecutive days thereafter.
• State high school activity associations in Arkansas, Connecticut, North Carolina and Georgia follows suit, with Georgia instituting fines of up to $1,000 for school found in violation of their heat acclimatization mandate. Fifteen other state high school associations are actively considering adoption.

Heat Acclimatization Guidelines by State >>

Georgia Practice Policy for Heat and Humidity:

How To Find the Best Time to Exercise

Is There a “Best” Time to Exercise?

That depends on a number of factors, including your body’s natural rhythms, your metabolic rate, your work and eating schedules and exposure to environmental factors.

Some people are early risers and want to get at it. Others start slower but can maintain longer throughout the day. These natural rhythms, called circadian rhythms, demonstrate peaks and valleys throughout the day. You are most likely to exercise when your energy level is high. Hopefully, you are able to match your meals, job, family, social and exercise activities with your natural rhythms.

6 Guidelines for Selecting the Best Time to Exercise:

1. Eat little before exercise
2. Avoid fat and protein sources if you plan to exercise shortly after eating since they digest slower than carbohydrate sources
3. Exercise after a meal should be enjoyable and mild in intensity so as to aid digestion and weight control
4. Exercising in the evening may aid metabolism during a normally slower time of the day, but may also cause “energy highs” making sleeping difficult
5. Carbohydrate sources digest more easily and are the body’s first choice for energy. This does not mean candy though!
6. If you are healthy enough for your exercise selection, there is no wrong time. Just make it a habit and stick with it.

Track Your activity with a pedometer or heart rate monitor >>

13 Tips for Selecting the Best Fitting Athletic Shoe

Protect Your Feet and Avoid Podiatry Problems with Shoes that Fit Correctly.

Your foot-ankle area is truly an architectural wonder. While composing 2-4% of the body’s total skin surface, the sole of the foot is capable of absorbing up to 7 times normal body weight with each foot plant.

There are a few general guidelines to be remembered when shopping for activity shoes:

1. 
   Never buy new shoes early in the day; shop in late afternoon or early evening when feet have swollen to their greatest width otherwise what felt good in the morning may be too tight in the evening.
   
2. Bring the socks that you intend to wear with your activity shoes when you go shopping.
   
3. If you have an old pair of activity shoes, bring them along with you to the store. Put on one old and one new shoe as you walk, hop, jump around the store. Compare the feel and then switch again onto your other foot.
   
4. 
   Set the shoe on a flat surface and look at it from the back. Make certain the heel counter sits perpendicular to the surface without leaning in or out.
   
5. 
   Take your thumb and attempt to flatten the heel counter into the shoe; heel counters should be firm.
   
6. 
   Check for double stitching especially around the laces and toe box.
   
7. 
   Make certain that the “break” in the top of the shoe is directly above the ball of your foot to ensure that the shoe bends where the foot bends.
   
8. 
   Leather uppers wear longer but are hotter than nylon mesh. Mesh will “breath” to help keep the foot cool and dry, but may be harder to keep clean.
   
9. 
   Match the shoe to the activity.
   
10. 
    Remember that a snug shoe might stretch in width, but a short shoe will not stretch in length.
    
11. 
    Match the toe box width to the shape of your toes. Some people find a wide toe box to be more comfortable with no pinching, squeezing and eventual blister formation.
    
12. 
    Break shoes in gradually. Alternate during the activity period between old and new for a while until the new feels as comfortable as the old.
    
13. 
    If you have a history of bunions, calluses, blister, arch strains, plantar fasciitis, it may be worth a podiatrist visit to get an explanation and/or manufacturer model number for the best shoe for you.
    

Many problems can be controlled or eliminated with prudent first aid and preventative measures. Consider using products such as Spenco® 2nd Skin if your new shoes rub your toes, Cramer® Blister Foam if your new shoes are rubbing the back of your heel, Longitudinal Arch Pads if you have a high arch and the shoes just don’t seem to support your arch, or Plantar Fascia Straps to help combat plantar fasciitis.

View all podiatry products available from Sports Health >>

How to Choose an Effective Post-Exercise Drink

Could Milk Be Your Secret Muscle Building Weapon?

As science catches up with athletic medicine, it certainly is within the role of the certified athletic trainer to have opinions on the fuel used by athletes to replenish and recharge after exercise.  Look around you, check the internet, have conversations with colleagues and attend meetings to find out more about this area. While it is undoubtedly within the domain of sports nutritionists and dieticians, most high schools and many colleges are not fortunate enough to this caliper of professional on staff.

Cost, convenience, availability and taste are all factors to consider when urging your athletes to utilize something during that two hour post-exercise window to recharge energy stores and replenish depleted protein sources.
I started urging something as simple and yet effective as chocolate milk when I speak to teams during preseason. Consider what the research says about chocolate milk as a post-exercise drink:

1. Protein.Helps build muscle, reduce muscle breakdown and works with carbohydrates to restore muscle glycogen.
2. Carbohydrates.Refuels muscles (restore muscle glycogen).
3. Electrolytes.Helps replenish what’s lost in sweat (sodium, calcium, potassium and magnesium).
4. Fluids.Helps rehydrate the body.
5. Calcium and vitamin D.Strengthens bones and reduces the risk of stress fractures.
6. B vitamins.Helps convert food to energy.
7. 9 essential nutrients.Offers additional nutrients not typically found in traditional sports drinks.

Adding milk vending machines or selling milk at games for fund-raisers are ways to incorporate milk onto your team.

For more information on milk, go to the below links.  Or, sign up for our enewsletter to keep current on the latest sports medicine trends.

• www.milkdelivers.org
• Rolando Blackman, NBA Dallas Mavericks speaks at http://www.courier-gazette.com/articles/2010/12/16/carrollton_leader/news/163.txt
  
  • Crafting Diet for Peak Performance Discussed - go to http://www.northjersey.com/news/111578364_Crafting_diet_for_peak_performance_discussed.html

Phil Hossler, ATC has been an athletic trainer on the scholastic, collegiate and Olympic levels. He has authored 4 books and numerous articles and served as an officer in state and regional athletic training associations for 20 years. He is a member of four halls of fame including the National Athletic Trainers’ Association’s.